Albert Pick Hotels

There was a Purple Cow shop and a Manhattan room all with murals by Grell.  The Albert Pick Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow coffee shop was in operation from 1945 until 1965 when there was a big union fight to help keep it open and try to save jobs.  The Jermyn was the eleventh Purple Cow shop opened by Albert Pick Hotels by 1945.   From 1945 to 1949, Pick Hotels spent $540,000 renovating and updating the structure.  In 1942, $52,000 was spent on the new Purple Cow shop and by 1948, $64,600 was spent reducing the size of the large Omar room to recreate the newly added Manhattan and Red Lacquer rooms.  Two Pick Hotel locations had both Purple Cow coffee and sandwich shops. It was reported that fourteen other Pick Hotels had a Purple Cow shop by 1949 (The Times-Tribune Scranton, PA Jermyn, Program Near Completion, Hotel’s $540,000 Job is in Final Phase, June 4, 1949, page 2).

Manhattan room & Louis Grell’s NYC skyline mural (1949)

Wealthy coal operator John Jermyn built the original hotel from 1894-1896 in the Romanesque style designed by architect John A. Duckworth.  It had a famous nightclub called the Omar room, part of which under Albert Pick became the fancy Manhattan and Red Lacquer rooms.  It is believed that shortly after Albert Pick acquired rights to the building, the Purple Cow was installed in 1945 at street level as shown in the pictures.  In 1948, a separate remodel occurred as described in the Pick Topicks magazine where the large Omar room was divided so they could create the Manhattan and Red lacquer rooms.  The article notes that 1/3 of the Omar room was used to add the two new rooms.

A captured and saved mural fragment from the Hotel Jermyn, Scranton called FERDINAND the BULL was heavily influenced by Walt Disney’s 1938 animated short of the same title.  So far we know that Grell painted FERDINAND murals inside the Hotel Jermyn in Scranton, Hotel Fountain Square in Cincinnati and the Hotel Miami in Dayton.  This mural section is one of at least seven murals from inside this Purple Cow coffee shop installed in 1945.  Grell also painted a mural depicting the skyline of New York City for the Manhattan Room and possibly another mural inside the hotel lobby.  Grell created at least nine murals for this hotel.

Below – FERDINAND the BULL and his spouse from the Hotel Jermyn (detail of central figures; see full image in the photo montage above):

The accompanying poem reads:

“FERDINAND, THE LUCKY BULL

HAS WED A SPLENDID SPOUSE

IF WE HAD A PURPLE COW BACK HOME

I NEVER WOULD KEEP HOUSE”

Below – A version of FERDINAND installed in 1940 at the Hotel Miami in Dayton.  Notice the trees and flowers.  Each mural, although the central figures were very similar, had completely different surroundings to conform with local interests.

Grell’s FERDINAND mural, Hotel Miami, Dayton, OH 1940

On the outside of the Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow shop entrance at street level to the right of the entrance doors there was a depiction of one of Grell’s murals executed by an unknown artist (not ruling out Grell).  The mural is titled HOW SHE CAN COOK.  The poem reads:

“MY LOVE SHE IS A PURPLE COW

HERE LIFE’S AN OPEN BOOK

BRIGHT ARE HER EYES AND PURE HER BROW

AND OH! HOW SHE CAN COOK”

Here is the mural as painted by Grell for the Pick Durant in Flint, MI in 1942.  Likely just a sketch of the outline of the cow done by a local Scranton artist.

Notice the daisies playing a prominent role in yet another Grell Purple Cow mural (FERDINAND the BULL by Walt Disney [1938] was “very happy” under his cork tree sniffing the flowers.  Here Grell puts his cow under a tree with hanging heart-shaped cookies).

Purple Cow murals: Typically oil on canvas covering large portions of all four to eleven wall sections or in the case of the Jermyn above the cooking area and walls.  Typically murals were above each eating booth along the exterior walls.

FERDINAND the BULL oil on canvas 48″ x 60″ mural fragment 1945 from the Hotel Jermyn by Grell (unsigned), private collection; previously from a storage building in Scranton, PA.

Interior view of Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow From the collection of Lackawanna Historical Society

OH HOW SHE CAN COOK MURAL  courtesy of Kettering University Archives, Flint, MI photo by Richard Grell

sources: Albert Pick Hotels Corporation’s monthly magazine Pick Topicks, May 1948 (vol. 6, no. 5) pages 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 & 13 and cover photo of the Manhattan Room with a photo reproduction of a Grell mural; inscribed by Fredricka Grell;  Pick Topicks 1955 page 8; Black & white images are of the Hotel Jermyn Purple Cow murals compared to color images of the Hotel Durant Purple Cow salvaged murals. The Lark, Purple Cow poem and artwork by Gelett Burgess May1895.

On the cover of the Pick Topicks magazine, May 1948 issue Fredricka Grell inscribed “Dear Helen, How are you? Louis painted this murals.  There is a fancy article about him inside on page 6 & 7.  Show this to Arthur & Roy (Grell’s brothers in Council Bluffs, IA).  If they want to have one let me know.  Write soon dearest Helen.  Much love from Friedl Louis & Toby (the Grell’s dog).”

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